The present invention relates to a front end structure of a motor vehicle with a fender support and a fender for attachment to the fender support.
Such vehicle front end structures are provided with a fender support which is attached to the A-column of a motor vehicle and which serves as the support for the fender.
Increased expectations to improve the front end structure of a vehicle are, among others, directed to a demand for better traffic safety especially as it relates to the protection of pedestrians. Therefore, the front end structure of a motor vehicle has to be designed such that an optimal energy absorption, in case of a collision, is realized. Since the general trend in the automobile industry has been to make vehicle assembly more and more compact, it has become problematic to retain a sufficient amount of space required to realize efficient energy absorption.
Current developments on pedestrian protection focus on the requirements of the so-called “lower leg” requirements which relate in particular to the deformation properties in the front end area of the vehicle. Particular measures to improve protection especially of the hip and head area of a pedestrian are still in the pre-development phase. An especially difficult problem remains solving the problem of protecting the heads of pedestrians when considering the height differences in adults and children, since a solution to that problem has to include protecting a child's head in the same manner as that of an adult.
Therefore, in order to realize an effective head protection for pedestrians, a large area in the motor vehicle has to be considered for that purpose which extends especially across the entire width of the vehicle hood area including the adjacent partial areas of the fenders. Especially, the area of transition from the vehicle hood to the fender or mud guard and the fender support underneath are considered a so-called “hardpoint” and deemed particularly problematic due to a certain stiffening effect the fender imparts, as well as the spatial conditions in that area and the tight space between the fender on the one hand, and the vehicle hood and the rigid fender support on the other.
The present invention is thus based on the problem of providing an improved vehicle front end structure of the afore-discussed type in which the front end area of the vehicle can be designed in a non-rigid manner such that in case of a collision with a pedestrian, the severity of a head injury is reduced, and to thus also securely fulfill the requirements relating to legal crash regulations.
This problem is solved by providing a vehicle front end structure assembly which is designed in accordance with the features of claim 1.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention are defined through the features of the dependent claims.